What Does Driving Safety Mean?

Driving safety is the ability of you as the driver to have full control of a motorized vehicle and react safely to changing traffic conditions to avoid crashes and injury to yourself or your passengers.

There are many things to keep in mind when you’re driving. For most people, driving is something you do naturally without a thought; and every time you do, there is always a risk. About 1.3 million people die every year as the result of a car accident. This is an average of Over 3,200 deaths every day. Even cautious, safe drivers can become victims in accidents.

In this guide you’ll learn the importance of safe driving, the dangers of distraction and tips for every age. Before we get into that, take a look at this infographic:

This website gives charts and other information about all type of driving and how we can be safer if everyone would just not drive impaired, keep their eyes on the road, and don’t speed. This is great information for students to use when writing papers for school.

2015 Distracted Driving Survey Available

To develop a baseline measure, a distracted driving survey was conducted to collect direct observations of distracted driving behavior. The survey was conducted from July 27 - Aug. 9, 2015 at 201 sites in 40 counties across the state of Minnesota. This is the first comprehensive survey in the nation.

Shattered Dreams: Distracted Driving Changes Lives

Distracted & Careless Driving

Poster from Mn. Safety Council

What Is Distracted Driving?

There are three main types of distraction:

Visual — taking your eyes off the road

Manual — taking your hands off the wheel

Cognitive — taking your mind off what you’re doing

Distracted driving is any non-driving activity a person engages in that has the potential to distract him or her from the primary task of driving and increase the risk of crashing.

While all distractions can endanger drivers’ safety, texting is the most alarming because it involves all three types of distraction.

Author ViJay Dixit, who launched an educational foundation about the fatal epidemic of Distracted Driving, after the death of his nineteen year old daughter who was a passenger when the driver got distracted and caused the deadly crash, now brings every angle of the issue into focus in this comprehensive book.

The book spells out the facts, consequences, and real-world possibilities for preventing these crashes with input from experts in technology, psychology, safety agencies, politics, education, and more. Combined with true stories of loss that cut to the heart of the tragic issue, this is the first all-in-one guide to a crisis that affects us all.

This is one of the most common distractions while driving. Many people do it despite the potential dangers. Hands free sets may help some, but it’s the conversation that takes away the driver’s focus on the road ahead.

Multi Tasking

Many people also try to do other things while driving such as eating, putting on make up, reading and turning to talk to the people in the back seat. Sometimes more than one of these actions are done at the same time or together with talking on the cell phone.

Texting While Driving

This is most common with young drivers. Many young people do not talk on the cell phone, they just text. Texting while driving takes away the use of one hand and requires you to occasionally glance at the phone. That moment of glancing down could be the time a child runs out in the street or the car in front of you suddenly stops. This can lead to disastrous results.

Loud Music

Some people like turning their car stereos very loud. Unfortunately this can also drown out important sounds from outside the car such as car horns, sirens, and the engine sounds of other cars near by. These are important cues that help a driver become aware of his surroundings.

Reading Maps

People who are traveling in unfamiliar roads often bring maps with them for reference. Unfortunately, maps also take the driver’s concentration from what he is doing. In the few seconds that it takes to glance at the map, an accident can easily take place. The new GPS devices for cars help eliminate this problem but adjusting the GPS is just as distractive.

Negative Emotional Stress

Many people drive while undergoing extreme stress. Negative emotions, especially anger can lead people to lose focus while driving. In some cases, it may even aggravate their driving styles. Many people drive more aggressively when they are angry